New SBR- question about ammo and suppressing

[brantley65]

I am just a few days away from picking up my new LMT SBR. Its the MRP-piston version with 12.5 barrel. I am going to run this gun suppressed as my primary HD weapon. The can will pretty much stay on it all the time. I choose this setup because I felt after dong a ton of reading about terminal effect vs overpenetration. However, I am still a little confused about ammo choice. From reading Doc Roberts on M4Carrbine, I gather that I should lean toward heavier bullets and the OTM style of bullet. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Also should I have any concerns about running this rifle suppressed?

[raven01750]

Hi Brantley. New guy here too. My only suggestion is to make sure that you are even allowed to run your setup suppressed. I know here in Cali that when I bought my Walther P22 with the 5" barrel, I found out that I wasn't even allowed to buy the barrel that would allow a suppressor to be installed because of assault weapons rules. Ialso found out that when the gun first shipped, they even had a recall on all of them sold here that had the suppressor threaded barrel. I know most states are not as restrictive as California, but you don't want to get mixed up with those ATF guys for sure. Just athought.

[raven01750]

Hey again Brantley, reading through one of the other threads, I found one about "Muzzle devices" that seem to fit in with what you are asking. I realize now that what you may have been talking about for your gun is probably a lot different than what I was talking about. LOL. But hey, I just figured out what SHTF means! Gotta keep learning though. Have a great day.
Paul

[Paulo_Santos]

As a pure home defense weapon, if uou are not shooting through barriers, any decent ammo will do the job. People over think the issue way too much. For a 12.5" barrel, the heavy OTM ammo at 5.56 velocities, or some of the 60-64 GR SP ammo would work great.

[brantley65]

Thanks Paulo, really only concerned about over penetration. I think I can a hold of some TAP 2 ammo and I'll start there.

[TehLlama]

TAP2 can be hard to find, but worth keeping once you do.
Another interesting note is how highly Doc Roberts praises the 50/55gr TSX ammunition as being light, affordable, very effective. Other loads (such as the Speer Gold Dot 62gr, Mk318 62gr SOST, 62gr TSX) in the intermediate range as well as 69gr SMK or even the affordable 75gr PPU (not ideal, but much cheaper, still accurate, and excellent training round) are worth looking at picking up.

I too would agree that out of a 12.5" weapon and no direct need for barrier penetration, most any ammo will do, so spend enough on ammo you can train with since shot placement is going to be worth a lot more than the relative minutae of bullet terminal performance.

[todd.k]

You can't ignore the fact that there is plenty of "good" quality 223 ammo that has bullets designed for shooting 5lb rodents. What makes it good for shooting rodents makes it a poor choice for larger targets.

For HD use without concern for barriers there are more options in a lower price range than bonded and TSX, I'd stick with 60gr+ OTM or SP at the minmum.

When you consider the need for a few to a half dozen "go to" mags, plus a few hundred rounds to zero, confirm accuracy and function the cost adds up. If you do it right it's a one time cost, stored in a dry temperature stable environment I wouldn't think about replacing it for years to a decade.
If you make a choice that you will question later, you may have to do it all over again.

[brantley65]

Todd, thank you some much for the reply. I am going to invest in at least 500 round of quality ammo to use in my setup. I will get some cheap practice ammo just work on gun handling. If I may, what ammo do you use in your setup?

[todd.k]

I use 110gr TAP 6.8 SPC.

[MoxyDave]

Just an FYI in case you were considering it, using frangible ammo through a can is typically a bad idea and several manufacturers specifically tell you in their manual that it will void your warranty. I have no personal experience with this, but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn last night. Food for thought ...